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RozWorks.comVisit my website to view journal selections, paintings, and book arts projects. For the most recent information on classes and workshops please click on "Classes" in the categories list of this blog.

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Podcasts with Roz

Danny Gregory and I Discuss Visual JournalingSadly a two part podcast from May 2008 made with Danny Gregory, author of "An Illustrated Life," is not currently available. We talked about journaling, art media, and materials…If this becomes available again in the future I will let you know.

Finding Bits of TimeRicë Freeman-Zachery, author of "Creative Time and Space," talks to me about finding time to be creative. (Taped October 23, 2009.)

Animals

July 31, 2015

Left: My 2005 Minnesota State Fair Journal. 8 x 8 inch journal cards made from 300 lb. Hot Press Fabriano Artistico Watercolor paper, prepainted with acrylic washes. The portfolio was made to size after the Fair, when the thickness of the stack of journal cards (and the CD of photos I took) was known. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about which journal I should take with me to the Minnesota State Fair for sketching. By "which journal" I of course mean, which paper, size, and format.

I'm still having shoulder problems so I'm not binding much. There are journals like the soft-covered, sewn-signature Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal, that I've taken to the Fair before. That's a good standby.

But I think what's holding me up is that I haven't come up with a plan for this year's Fair. Each year I think about which media I want to work in, and that somewhat dictates which paper I'll work on, and that tells me whether I'll be binding a book, and so on.

This year there will be no BIRDS at the Fair (except for the resident pigeons hunting for scraps of Fair food). Bird flu in Minnesota has been devastating to the farmers. Bird exhibits have been banned this year to prevent further spread of the disease.

I'm trying to think of what I'll focus on in my sketching. Goats and sheep leap to mind. Of course there are people. Lots and lots of people.

What will I enjoy taking with me?

It might be that this year would be another great year to take journal cards. I simply can't decide. I am going to have a couple options available. Next week I'll case in a Japanese Lined journal of the type I love to work in while in the studio. They have paper covers so they need support if I'm going to carry them around the Fair. I'll also prepare some journal cards. Then I can go either way.

How many cards to prepare? Well I look at past sketching numbers and work out how many sketches I get done in an average day at the Fair and then I prep that many cards for each day of the Fair I'll attend (I usually go 4 or 5 times). Then I add in another day's worth of cards for extras, in case I get into speed sketching. I always end up with exactly the right number of cards. (I think I have an internal switch control or something.)

If you are wondering which journal you need to take to the Fair (or other event) and want to read more about how I pick a journal, you can read the following post "Journal Size Matters."

The image for that post seems to be broken, and I might not be able to find it and fix it before this posts, but it's just a series of books that are the different sizes I use. Here is a post which shows some of the different sizes of journals I make, so you can get a visual idea if you are new to the blog. I don't use the landscape journals. They end up with landscape artists.

July 27, 2015

Left: Here's a little blast from the past, a Guinea Fowl sketch I made at the 2009 MN State Fair. I'd taken a limited range of watersoluble color pencils. I mostly used them dry as in this example. I worked on 8 x 10 inch journal cards made of 300 lb. Fabriano Artistico, Hot Press watercolor paper. Click on the image to view and enlargement.

One of the most important things I think you can do to get ready at to go sketching at the Minnesota Fair (or any Fair or Royal Show you live near) is to get your gear together.

For me gear almost always includes pens and watercolors, so that means palettes and waterbrushes, some paper towels, and a journal that will take wet media.

But there are also other items that every sketcher needs to stay comfortable and work efficiently throughout a long day of sketching.

I think this same gear can be used for any other day-trips or sketching vacations (though for the latter you'll need to take additional supplies in your luggage to avoid running out of art materials).

I can't remember when I got my blue fanny back from MountainSmith. I know I was using it in the 1990s. It replaced other packs that were less comfortable, or simply worn out. I've been using it for almost 20 years. During part of that 20 year period that pack was also the "bag" I carried daily, as I ran my errands around town. But around 2010 I stopped carrying it daily because I was looking to lighten my daily load. I have a smaller fanny packs and other bags to use for daily jaunts. This has been a fantastic fanny pack and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I even bought another MountainSmith pack last year. It's vertical and holds about the same materials, but is more accepting of some journal formats. I think I might just have to get another one of these horizontal packs before they stop making them!

The Bagalini shown in the other post is no longer with me, it really didn't hold up to the demands of constant hard use, but I did tend to over-fill it, as it was just a little too small. A host of other bags have auditioned for its role over the years.

Finding exactly the right bag is difficult. I recommend you take your current bag and all your sketching gear with you when you are shopping. Fill the candidate bag up and put it on. Jump up and down and walk a bit in that area of the store. See how it feels.

Wear similar clothing to what you'll wear on the day, when testing a bag. This is particularly important if you are going for a full back pack and intend to wear a wide-brimmed hat that extends backwards. The last thing you want is for the brim of your hat to hit the topmost extension of your back pack all day long, while you try to sketch live subjects darting all about!

Store trial is much more efficient than buying a bag and taking it home, only to return it. Some bags "look" big enough or just right, but a zipper lining turns out not to accommodate a sketchbook or brush box, and it can be immediately ruled out.

Even after you have purchased it I still recommend you take it for a sketching test drive to a short event, like a 2-hour trip to the zoo. This will help you work out all the organizational glitches with a new bag, and help you learn your new storage system, so that you'll be able to work effortlessly at the Fair.

Oh, and before I leave the topic of gear bags I should mention that some of my friends use photographer's or hunter's vest's. The large array of pockets helps you stow a lot of gear. I don't care to wear these (I tried one out in the field when I was tracking with the girls). I find that all that weight on my shoulders pulls me down, and greatly diminishes my ability to sketch for long periods of time. But everyone has different tolerances and they might be just the thing you're looking for. Find them at any large hunting or camping store. Be sure to allow enough room beneath them, for the layers of clothing you'll wear on the day. (For instance on sunny days I wear a t-shirt AND a light weight "sunscreen" shirt. Those shirts can also be purchased at camping and hunting supply stores.)

The Fair starts August 27. The Seventh Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out is on Tuesday, Sept. 1. That doesn't leave you a whole lot of time to sort out your gear if you aren't already prepared.

Take some time this week to get organized, so you can test your media and tool selection on a trip to the zoo or other sketching outing. Then you'll be all set to hit the ground sketching, at the Minnesota State Fair.

You can still register up until 10 p.m. tonight. (I had to change the registration time because I realized you would need time to do your homework for today.)

If you would like to spend the next 30 days building a durable sketching habit, working on approaches to build your accuracy, silencing your internal critic, and getting out sketching in public, there's still time to join in.

For the next month I'll be in class seeing what the students do. But I want to make sure that everyone reading the blog is also getting ready for their Fairs or outdoor activities, so I'm going to share my favorite posts about the Fair through July. I hope that will get you out sketching live subjects wherever you live!

And of course the SEVENTH Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out is just around the corner. Artist Ken Avidor did the art for this year's button and I am excited for everyone to see it. (And will post it as soon as they arrive.)

SAVE THE DATE REMINDER: The Seventh Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out will be on Tuesday, September 1, 2015.

I will post more details about the meeting and a map to the meeting location closer to the day. Get out there and start getting ready. (I'm thinking of hitting a county fair or two!)

This will be the last MNFSO I organize. I hope you can all come out, sketch your hearts out and show me the Fair through your eyes.

Don't worry, there will still be a sketch out in 2016 and beyond; it will just be taken up by another local artist who is totally committed to sketching at the Fair. I could not be happier. (And of course I'll still be coming to the Fair.)

In other Fair news, I and several of my friends, have made it into round two of the Fine Art Judging at the Fair. What that means is our digital entries were deemed worthy of a look in person. So in a short while we'll have to drop the artworks off at the Fairgrounds for the judges to judge. We're crossing our fingers. (Each artist can enter one piece of artwork.)

June 15, 2015

Left: "Mr. Buttons," 12 x 12 inches, gouache on watercolor paper. A dog-park friend who is a Boston Terrier. Click on the image to view an enlargement. (Note all my paintings will be sold matted and framed.)

The invitational group show "Art With A Bark" opens at the Edina Art Center on June 25. It runs through July 30. (You'll find a map and a list of hours at that link.)

I will be delivering 7 new dog portraits in a couple days. These are original paintings, not prints. They all use gouache; a couple also have pen and gouache. All are 12 x 12 inches or 11 x 17 in size, with the mats and frames of course making them larger. In other words, most of these are larger than life.

I'm pretty excited to show the new dog paintings and I'll hope that you can come and support the artists in this group show.

June 12, 2015

Left: After a visit to assisted living as outlined in the "Aftermath" section of today's post, I always walk down the hall to the Aviary and sketch and paint the birds. I find a quick five-minute, or less, sketch like this balances me out, and grounds me enough, so that I can get into the car and drive home and get back to work. Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy pen and Daniel Smith Watercolors, on Fluid 100 Cold Press—a test of their 100 percent cotton watercolor paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

It's 12:40 a.m.

I'm wide awake.

At 11:50 p.m. I was checking emails. I saw one written by a friend of CR. It had posted at 11 p.m. This friend was to have picked CR up for lunch.

According to the desk attendant at [the Residence], about twenty minutes before CR was supposed to meet me for transportation to the Engineer's Lunch today, he left the building “with two men.” I checked the log book and saw that indeed, he did leave. I want to convey the concern of the group. We missed him! We hope he didn’t have a medical emergency, and that he is back in his room resting comfortably.

I woke Dick (who had gone to bed at the regular time and is not cursed with worry-induced insomnia like I am, because in truth I was worrying about the folks before I received this email). Dick doesn't wake well—always being startled, regardless of how gently I try to get his attention—I have opted for the "Rip off the Band-Aid™" method. I call from two rooms away, loud enough to disturb him. Any closer and he'll leap out of bed injuring himself and possibly me; it's not as funny as it sounds.

Once he was awake, I told Dick that I had called the front desk at the assisted living facility and no one had answered so I left a message about my concerns, raised by this email.

I also told Dick, "I'm WIDE awake, I could go over there and check on CR…" I was really bothered by the unnamed "two men" he'd left with. We know all his friends, and of those still living, no one would come and take him out of the building. Most would in fact be waiting for him at the luncheon.

D: No, I'll go tomorrow. If he went to the hospital they'd have called you and me. No one would take him.

R: Well if they did, they'd return him in about 5 minutes. He can be difficult. [a beat] Really, I can go over there. Ninja in, Ninja out.

I demonstrated stealthy progress and Ninja Skills, in mime, as I said that.

D: You're not going to use your Ninja Skills. You'll get in there and Dad will wake up and have a heart attack.

I pause my Ninja Feet Demo, and I look frozen and startled as if someone just turned on a light and "caught" me. [a beat] We laugh.

R: What's the point of having Ninja Skills if you don't use them? [a beat] Just saying…

D: Good Night Munchkin…

He rolled over as he spoke. Ending the conversation. I stood in the bedroom doorway pondering my next move to distract my mind from worry…

The Aftermath

Here's what happened.

We'll never know.

The next morning on his way to work, Dick stopped to check on his dad. Dick then called me to say all was well. But he didn't have any ANSWERS to any of the questions I had, such as where his dad was in the missing three hours he was outside of the building, memory impaired, without his heart medication, wandering down one of the busiest streets in the city, where there are numerous light rail crossings. Oh, and did I mention he's pretty much deaf and almost totally blind?

I received a call from the staff saying I'd used the wrong number (I'd taken it off the internet) and that I'd used the daytime office number (it was all that was listed). She gave me a new number to call in this late night situation and apologized that no one had called me back until 10 a.m. She had no other information, except that CR had been back in the building since 2 p.m. the previous day.

I headed over after lunch. I worked my questions gradually into the conversation so as to not put him on the defensive. Basically I was trying to find out what would have taken him outside, minutes before he was to go to a luncheon he looks forward to monthly?

After a very circuitous conversation it became evident that he didn't know the previous day had been his luncheon date (it was written in large letters on his calendar); and he didn't have any recollection of leaving the building (though he was clearly signed out).

Next I asked questions about what he was working on and other projects he might work on, to change the topic. It was obvious there was no information available from him on his outing. None of it had made it into his memory.

The next week he tried to leave the building again, and this time the staff stopped him and asked him where he was going. He said he wanted to go to a store. (The stores aren't close and they are across the previously mentioned busy street and rail line.) The staff person convinced him to allow her to accompany him to the in-building store, where the items he said he wanted to purchase (laundry detergent and toilet paper) were to be found.

She then offered to put away his purchases while he went on to dinner (he gets nervous about being late). She told me that when she unpacked and put things away she saw he had an ample supply of EVERYTHING that he said he urgently needed to buy.

This means that he is either too blind to see into his large, well lit storage closet where all these items reside, or he wanted something else that he didn't buy because she was there. (He was buying hundreds of dollars worth of lottery tickets before he entered assisted living, when he was still driving to the grocery store, and he has a child-like secretive approach to his chocolate consumption.)

Or there is some other reason we will never fathom, perhaps as simple as he just wanted to take a walk.

June 01, 2015

Above: If you click on the "Pass the Journal Project" link in the first sentence of this post you'll go to a page with the 12 journals listed. If you then click on "PULP" you'll see a map. If you click on the little flag in Minneapolis that I have pointed to with an arrow, the side bar will pop up showing my page spread, the materials I used, and the page title. There is also a mini-bio about me. Later there will be more flags for this journal as it is passed along and each artist posts a spread. And since I sent it to another Minneapolis artist, I think there might be several flags in this area. It will be fun to see what happens. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I'm excited to announce that several months ago I was asked to participate in Strathmore's "Pass the Journal Project." I was one of twelve artists who was sent an 8.5 x 11 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media hardcover journal to start the chain. The journal actually arrived two weeks ago. Each artist is to complete a spread in the journal within two weeks and pass it along to the next artist.

The book I was sent is "Pulp." (My friend Ken Avidor was sent "Fourdrinier" to kick off.)

For "Pulp" I created a title page (since the endsheet wasn't the same paper and I wanted to do my spread on a spread of the same paper. Also I'm a little compulsive about having a title page. Then I did the first spread which I've included below in this post.

Left: If you go to the site link and INSTEAD of clicking on the title of the journal you click on "Artists" in the top line of the window (Arrow A), the page will look like this second image. At Arrow B you can click for a drop down menu of the journals (I'm in "Pulp") and that will take you to that journal's map. If you write in an artist's name at Arrow C on the left you can search for the artist. If you go to Arrow C on the right (sorry, I just saw that I labeled with C twice, but you get the idea), you'll see an alphabetical list of artists, down which you can scroll. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Left: If you scroll down the list I've just shown you, you'll see Ken Avidor, and when you scroll down further you'll see me, "Roz." I think the artists are showing up on the list in order of how we posted because I know Ken was going to send his book on to Andy Singer and I see Andy has already posted and appears just below my name. Of course you can select last names to view the list by. The list you see will look different because artists are adding new page spreads all the time and the list is growing. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I'm pretty excited to see what the other artists involved are going to be doing. I know that some of the journals went outside the U.S. so there is going to be a wide selection of approaches and styles posted.

If you go to the ARTISTS list that I've shown you in the second and third images in this post, and you click on an artist's thumbnail a larger version of their work pops up. Alternately you can click on the "view journal" link which takes you to the map, or you can click on the link to the artist's website. (I put my blog link there because it's been so long since I updated my website. EEEE.)

When I sat down to do my page I had two goals: 1. I wanted my page to be representative of what I do (which pretty much means birds, dogs, or people), and 2. I wanted to demonstrate that this paper is really very versatile and can really take a beating.

I wasn't sure what I would do on the spread for an image, but to achieve goal 2 I knew I wanted to pre-paint my background with mixed media. (I did this with acrylic paint, and rubberstamp ink (Brillance, which is waterproof, and which you can see in the rounded squares stenciling pattern across the spread).

That sat open for about 5 days or more while I thought what to do on the page. Then our rainy days turned to sunny and warm, on the final day I had for working in the journal. I had to make a decision and I knew the zoo would be a zoo on our first warm day in weeks. The dog park seemed to be the natural solution. The heavy layers of gouache on the Chihuahua on the left were added in the studio from memory, covering a fairly detailed, quick contour sketch (which benefits from being hidden by paint). For the sketching portion of the page spread I used a .3 Staedtler Pigment Liner, Montana Acrylic Markers (blue-green and pink to isolate a couple figures), and Schmincke gouache.

As readers of my blog know, I love this paper. It takes everything I throw at it and still keeps performing.

Note:I realized today that I have never had a category for "Pre-painted backgrounds." Perhaps it's because that would be redundant in my case since I do it so often. But I added such a category today, to help visitors find at least one piece quickly.

Below: Here's my final piece. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

May 20, 2015

Left: Dog park dog sketch with brush pen and gouache (light) washes. Background is Montana Marker. I'm back on some Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media paper and it LOVES the brush pens. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

When you participate in an event like Art-A-Whirl you're set up in one spot for 3 days. And you end up talking to a lot of people.

I am the first to admit that in most situations I talk a lot about art supplies, but in an art-show situation with other artists stopping by I think I can guarantee that I'll talk about art supplies a good portion of the time.

When my friend Laurie stopped by to catch up, I asked about her recent work. She showed me some iPhone photos. Then she started talking about how she was making her paintings and it became immediately obvious to me that she needed a bunch of Montana (or Molotow) acrylic paint markers. So I launched into my description of and praise for them.

Linda came up and started to laugh. (Remember way back in 2000 Linda gave me pencils at the holidays that were stamped "Roz Stendahl Art Materials Expert.")

Linda was laughing.

Linda: Major art supply companies have a GPS locator on Roz so they can track her whereabouts and relate it to the upswing in purchases of certain supplies.

Well if they don't, they probably should!

Earlier that afternoon another friend had stopped by and asked me, "What's that brush pen you're using that you keep talking about?"

I whipped out my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and handed it to Don, along with a yellow pad of paper that was nearby, so he could test it out.

It took 30 seconds or less for him to fall in love with it, so I reached into my bag for my two extra cartridges, explained how to reload the pen, and sent Don on his way with the pen and refills.

Of course I kept his sketch.

People I talk to about the brush pen may never become as hopelessly addicted to it as I am, but even if they are, or if they can't stop using Montana (or Molotow) markers, I feel over all I've done something good in the interaction. They'll certainly have more fun sketching.

May 18, 2015

Left: Portrait of a bull terrier—gouache on gessoed and taped paper. This is one of the paintings I had prints of at Art-A-Whirl. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I want to thank all the folks who showed up at Flying Horse Gallery this Friday through Sunday for the Art-A-Whirl event.

We had a great time, enjoyed meeting new people, enjoyed talking to old friends and past students who stopped by…and we did a lot of eating.

Thanks to Charlie Maguire (one of our hosts) we had grilled hot dogs every day (high quality, expertly prepared), and Kathy Koutsky brought meats and cheeses and breads and salads. There was great root beer, bottled water, and wine. There was so much food it was incredible. Linda Koutsky, our other host was tireless in helping folks. It just couldn't have been more fun. I cannot remember laughing so much in quite a long time.

The weather was great—a little overcast all three days, followed by long stretches of sun. It was good weather for jumping from gallery to gallery. We hope you all stayed dry and avoided any of the brief bits of rain.

If you are an artist friend who had your own Art-A-Whirl show going on, I'm sorry I couldn't join you; and I look forward to connecting at another time. I hope you had a great weekend.

May 13, 2015

Above: Finch sketch, see earlier stage later in this post. I was enlarging a study sketch made at the nursing home aviary weeks previously when I was getting out and about. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Back in January when I was recovering from the flu with a nice bout of bronchitis I started a new Japanese Lined Journal. It came from the same line as the ones I'd been using for the past two years, but it was smaller in size. (I actually bound it into a hard cover just for kicks, thinking I'd get well and want to carry it around. HAHAHAHAH.)

Left: The first stage of the drawing. All the pre-painted background bits are visible. The paint that appears "copper-ish" is actually rubberstamp ink that is two toned—red and copper. In the final scan above it looks the color it really is. The other background paint is Golden Fluid Acrylics.Click on the image to view an enlargement.

What I noticed early on while working in this journal, was that the paper was not taking the media I'd always used in its larger "relations." Media like gouache and Stabilotones.

I had Dick get out his micrometer and sure enough the paper in the smaller sized journal was thinner too. It just wasn't working the same for me and that was surly part of the reason.

Left: Here's where I realize that the gouache and Stabilotones aren't going to go down onto this paper the way I usually have worked with them. (I have used all these types of media before on "this" paper in the larger journals). I change gears and come up with a drier approach with the gouache and ditch the Stabilotone, and because I was impatient I had to get out the heat gun and dry each layer so I could move on, finish and go to bed. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

In past, larger versions of this journal line I was able to really play a lot with these media, but this paper wouldn't hold it.

Not to let the time be a total waste I used it to build up the head of the bird and play with the expression. (It's not a coincidence the bird goes from happily curious in the sketch to wary and disgruntled in the finished head.) I also experimented with different whites to do the dotted feathers on the bird.

Throughout the entire process one thing sustained me, and it wasn't my love of birds, it was that lovely branch the bird is sitting on. I kept looking and that and saying, "well that's working."

I am a true addict. I need to pick up the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen every day.